May 10, 2012

Why this Shadow of Vidharbha over West Bengal?

How many deaths will it
take till he knows that too many people have died?

THE lyrics of Bob Dylan
reverberate in rural West Bengal these days, may be in a different refrain. In
the last seven months of ‘changed’ regime, 51 farmers have committed suicide in
the state. Dhana Tudu, an agricultural worker in Bhatar, Burdwan was the first.
Khandu Ghosh, a poor peasant of Sadar1 block of the same district was the 50th.
Ghosh hanged himself on April 27. He cultivated Aman rice in 10 bighas of land
few months earlier. The produce did not fetch remunerative price as was the
case with overwhelming majority of farmers in the state. Then he tried Boro
cultivation but the paddy was destroyed by insects. In fact, there is a large
scale insect attack in Burdwan and some other districts. Khandu Ghosh, after
realising that his cultivation has been destroyed, committed suicide. Even
before the news of this 50th death was commented upon, Mana Malik, a female
sharecropper followed suit, again in Burdwan, this time in Jamalpur block. The
story of young Mana, wife of a worker, is almost same as her paddy was also
destroyed. Almost all of them were reeling under debt.

The brunt of spate of suicides
has been felt by Burdwan, the leading paddy producer in the state. Till now, 35
farmers have taken their lives in this district alone. Three in Maldaha, two each
in Bankura, Murshidabad, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, one each in Jalpaiguri,
West Midnapur, Howrah, Birbhum and south 24 Parganas.

The shadow of Vidharbha over
West Bengal has raised serious questions. More than one lakh farmers’ suicides
have taken place in the country in the last one decade. But West Bengal, except
for sparse incidents, remained free from this trend. There was virtually no
peasant suicides in the state related with crisis in agriculture during the
tenure of the Left Front government. Even the virulent anti-Left media did not
report any such incidents. Why this stream of suicides now? Madan Ghosh, state
president of AIKS, identified neo-liberal policies as the central reason. ‘More
than four farmers’ suicides per month
have taken place under the new government in the state. The central policies
and the failure of the state government to protect the peasants are two
principal factors behind such a tragedy’, said Ghosh. Both the governments are
pursuing neo-liberal policies, he added.

The cost of production has sky
rocketed in the recent period. The price of fertilizer has increased manifold.
So are prices of other inputs like insecticides, seeds etc. The crisis in
agriculture is an all India phenomenon. But during the Left Front period, the
state government extended all possible protective measures to defend the
peasants. That infrastructure has virtually collapsed under the new regime.

The minimum support price is
usually much lower than the production cost. For example, while the per quintal
production cost of jute was in the range of Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 in last season,
MSP was declared at Rs 1175 only. Likewise, while MSP for the next season has
been fixed at Rs 2200, the cost of production has meanwhile increased to Rs
3500 per quintal. Madan Ghosh alleged that the farmers have not received even
the MSP. It was in the case of paddy too. No serious effort was made to procure
paddy from the peasants. Farmers were forced to sell at distress prices. Same
thing happened in the case of potatoes and onions.

This wide gap between
production cost and sale price accentuated the problem of debt in rural Bengal.
Farmers are taking recourse to private lending and micro finance loans with
high interest rates.

Even this will not explain in
full the disastrous situation prevailing in West Bengal today. Panchayats have
been rendered inoperative systematically. The decentralisation of power has
been reversed. This resulted in collapse of rural development programme and
employment generation schemes, including MNREGA. Agricultural workers and poor
peasants, partially dependent on such jobs, have lost their source of income.
In a reign of terror, the peasants in most parts of the state are still unable
to pressurise the government machinery to redress.

Bob Dylan’s lyrics have become
relevant in the backdrop of continuous denial of the tragedy by the chief
minister herself and her administration. In fact, the chief minister has
admitted of only ‘one’ such incident without identifying which one. There is growing
discontent in rural Bengal over neglect of peasantry while the state
administration is busy in superficial beautification of Kolkata.

Left peasant organisations,
along with other mass organisations have already initiated struggles against
anti-peasant, anti-people policies of the government. Village level and block
level rallies and jathas have taken place. Madan Ghosh said, ‘We are strongly
against suicides. Our call is ‘Unite to struggle, not suicides.’